Monday, 6 December 2010

Black and white portrait photography is a theme I like to play around with in most of my work. The concept of shadows helping to express the emotions on faces and the depth of the surroundings is something that has an impact on me. From an extent study of emotion and simple colour I have managed to create a relationship that confronts the viewers.

The idea for my project came form the topic slavery from my Digital art and design lessons, I began to experiment with shadows around an object and eventually, around a model. I then added text to influence more of a meaning, impact and allowing the viewers to ask more questions. The artist that influenced me during this project was Victor Palagano because of the way shadows have an effect on the background and the object/model. Also it’s how he places him models that have inspired me most as he doesn’t put the camera to the centre if the model or too close, Palagano allows the surrounding to come thought the photograph as well. I believe Palagano does this to get the viewers attention and to make his work, some what, versatile.

Victor Palagano communicates through visual means by contrasting the darker and lighter tones throughout his photograph, which then helps the subject become even more of a main attraction, compared tot eh rest of the photo. In some respects Palagano is communicating to the viewers by wanting them to think about the image in more depth. Instead of seeing someone sitting in a dark room, he wants them to ask questions, i.e. Why is he there? What has happened? And how would the viewer feel if they were in the position of the model? To me Victor Palagano uses visual means to encourage the public to look at every aspect of the photograph and to understand his meaning behind his idea, instead of stating the obvious.

The materials Victor Palagano uses are those that interest and inspire him. The exaggeration of dark and light tones make his work more interesting because he almost makes out that the background is hiding something, this then creates the model to show more emotion. The lighter and darker tones bring in a slightly softer aspect to the photograph, although they do help make the photograph seem chilling and afraid of the darker tones of the background. Palagano’s materials within the photograph have communicated these ideas because of the use of the darker shadows encourage the public eye to see his photograph in depth and have a better grasp on his meaning.

Palagano’s work has multiple angles of how it can be viewed. His photographs manage to influence the viewers to take a different aspect towards the content of his work. The main point of Palagano’s work that interested me most is how he arranges his model as he has created as many tones as possible within his photograph by using very little light that is shone above, mainly on his model. Palagano contains lighter tones onto the facial features; this gives the photograph the ‘detached’ feel around the content. Within my own work, Palagano has inspired me to use plenty of tones and to think, in detail, where to place my model in my surrounding area. I believe I have achieved this in the photograph below.